Okay, so they aren't what you're probably imagining (though I do have plenty of that type, too).
I have been coveting these books for months now! Nikki's father was kind enough to buy them for us - all seven sets! Unfortunately, each set is only two books and a dry-wipe pen, so there isn't the quantity I would like (so says my inner-hoarder!) but the quality is great.
The stories are not necessarily the most well thought out and sometimes come across as a random selection of sentences on a vocabulary theme (eg. days of the week) but the story isn't the reason I wanted these books! It is the picture page that I love - a whole side of question prompts for me! The questions not only help build and reinforce vocabulary and conversation, they encourage observation and critical thinking - Where is...? What shouldn't be in the picture? What is missing? etc.
The text is simple enough that I can read it all, but I am still reaching for my dictionary to confirm stresses/translations on most pages. Just challenging enough to make it fun, unlike trudging through the long fairy stories we have, looking up archaic fairy-tale language...
These books will be the core of our Russian conversation practice. I expect that initially we will manage only one sentence of each book per week - taking into account the picture page with around nine conversation 'exercises'. I plan to repeat the same material daily for a week, or until Nikki demands we move on - so our first book will probably take us around 2.5 months! As we get used to it, I expect to quickly increase the number of pages, or it will take nearly 3 years to read them all!
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| Sample pages from different books - the words don't match the picture! |
I have been coveting these books for months now! Nikki's father was kind enough to buy them for us - all seven sets! Unfortunately, each set is only two books and a dry-wipe pen, so there isn't the quantity I would like (so says my inner-hoarder!) but the quality is great.
The stories are not necessarily the most well thought out and sometimes come across as a random selection of sentences on a vocabulary theme (eg. days of the week) but the story isn't the reason I wanted these books! It is the picture page that I love - a whole side of question prompts for me! The questions not only help build and reinforce vocabulary and conversation, they encourage observation and critical thinking - Where is...? What shouldn't be in the picture? What is missing? etc.
The text is simple enough that I can read it all, but I am still reaching for my dictionary to confirm stresses/translations on most pages. Just challenging enough to make it fun, unlike trudging through the long fairy stories we have, looking up archaic fairy-tale language...
These books will be the core of our Russian conversation practice. I expect that initially we will manage only one sentence of each book per week - taking into account the picture page with around nine conversation 'exercises'. I plan to repeat the same material daily for a week, or until Nikki demands we move on - so our first book will probably take us around 2.5 months! As we get used to it, I expect to quickly increase the number of pages, or it will take nearly 3 years to read them all!
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